Two airports were seized by armed anti-coup militias in the Crimean region of Ukraine on Friday. The militia members, identify themselves as "self-defense squads". They were directed to patrol the airport by the new anti-coup Crimean government that was established on Thursday. Militia members said they were there to prevent fascists from flying in from Kiev. The self-defense squads have now partially withdrawn from the airport on their own accord and are patrolling outside the airport.

The head Simferopol airport security service, Vladimir Perepelitsa, said of the self-defense squads:

“We are constantly in touch with them. We are protecting passengers inside the airport, and they do the same outside. If everything goes as peacefully as it does now, then they will stay here for as long as it takes to provide security.”

Ukraine's Interior Minister of the coup government first claimed that what was taking place was an armed invasion by Russia. When that lie was exposed, Ukraine's new Secretary of National Security and Defense, Andriy Parubiy, claimed that the self-defense squads are "commanded by the Kremlin."

The reality is that the self-defense squads were set up by Ukrainians out of fear of the new ultra-nationalist government in Kiev that contains neo-Nazis. Since the coup far right attacks on basic democratic rights and violations of the rights of national minorities have occurred.

Andriy Parubiy was named Ukraine's new Secretary of National Security and Defense by the new coup government on Wednesday. That decision was then subject to rubber stamp approval from Ukraine's parliament, an undemocratic body in which elected politicians opposed to last weekend's coup have fled in the face intimidation and violence.

Andriy Parubiy is a co-founder of the neo-Nazi Social-National Party of Ukraine which later changed its name to Svoboda.

Andriy Parubiy played a leadership role in the 2004 U.S. sponsored coup, often called the "Orange Revolution", which brought Viktor Yuschenko to power. Yuschenko was never elected, despite western propaganda claiming that was a democratic revolution as well. In power, Viktor Yuschenko, posthumously awarded Stepan Bandera, a mass murderer of Jews and Poles who collaborated with Nazi Germany, the title of “National Hero of Ukraine”. When this award was soundly denounced by the European Parliament, as well as Russian, Polish and Jewish organizations, Andriy Parubiy publicly asked the European Parliament to reconsider its negative reaction.

Stepan Bandera committed mass murder of Jews and Communists, and murdered between 40,000 and 60,000 Poles. Unarmed civilians, men, women, and children, were massacred in the most vicious manner by Bandera's forces. Despite giving Bandera's forces training and aid, the German Nazis later turned on him after he helped facilitate the Nazi invasion of Ukraine (as was the fate of many Nazi collaborators). After WW II, the counterrevolutionary mass murderer Bandera was aided by the CIA, but he was eventually defeated and assassinated by forces of the USSR. This is Andriy Parubiy's hero.

More recently, Andriy Parubiy gave military command to the riots that have overthrown the elected government of Ukraine. This, however, should not be seen as an amazing military victory. This was a coup d'etate. It was a coup d’etate in part because the elected president was overthrown by the force of small imperialist backed armed bands of rioters who had the threat of crippling economic sanctions from the United States and European Union backing them. This forced President Yanukovych to use less force than he needed to for the restoration of order. This also pushed various representatives within the capitalist state to back the coup. Those who did not, not only faced the threat of economic sanctions, which their capitalist backers would hate, they also faced direct violence and threats of violence from the Euromaiden movement itself. Far from being revolution that sprang from the masses of Ukraine, this was an imperialist engineered coup d'etate.

Under President Yanukovych's government, regional language rights were given to national minorities, allowing official business to be conducted in Russian, Hungarian, and Romanian in regions where these national groups form a sizable portion of the population. The new ultra-nationalist coup government immediately abolished these language rights after coming to power. Poles were not among those who had gained these rights because Parubiy's hero Bandera did such a thorough job slaughtering Poles, but important national rights have been lost for other minorities.

Also under attack is a party that played a role in upholding the rights of national minorities, the Party of Regions. Since the overthrow of President Yanukovych last weekend, at least 200 headquarters of the Party of Regions have been destroyed and moves have been made to ban the party. This is the party of elected government. In addition, the Communist Party has been banned and their headquarters were destroyed by thugs who yelled, "Hang the commies!".

Other supposed undemocratic laws have also been repealed. Among these are those aimed at cutting off U.S. aid to the Euromaiden rioters. Another one of the supposedly "anti-democratic" laws of the Ukrainian government that was enacted against the Euromaiden rioters was for the preservation of monuments dedicated to the heroes of World War II. Now, after the U.S. / E.U. orchestrated coup d'etate, the rightist movement that has taken power, composed largely of neo-Nazis, are free to dismantle monuments to the Soviet heroes of World War II. And they have destroyed at least one major monument.

Thirty million citizens of the USSR died under Nazi occupation and fighting to defeat Adolf Hitler's Nazi state. Under the Nazi occupation of Ukraine from 1941 to 1945, three million Ukrainians were murdered by the fascists, including 900,000 Jews. Stated Nazi plans for Ukraine were to murder an additional 12 million people in 10 years, enslave most of the rest of the Ukrainians, and open up Ukraine to German settlement. Thankfully, the USSR’s Red Army liberated Ukraine, Eastern Europe, and the world from the capitalist menace of German Nazi imperialism at that time.

In addition to the destruction of a monument celebrating the heroes of WW II, the new government is destroying statues of Lenin. At least 27 of these monuments have been destroyed so far. Part of the irony of ultra-nationalists destroying statues of Lenin is the fact that it was the Russian Revolution, led by Lenin and Trotsky, that finally gave national rights, including language rights, to the Ukrainian people who had long been oppressed under the tsarist empire. At the destruction of these monuments to Lenin, white power flags and the flag of Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera can be seen in photographs.

The Euromaiden protests were led by three right wing capitalist parties acting in coalition, one of those three being the neo-Nazi Svoboda Party. Fascist flags were ubiquitous at demonstrations, anti-Semitic speeches were given on stage, and reliable reports have been given of copies of Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kompf" and the anti-Semitic "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" being mass distributed for free to protesters.

In Kiev, since the Euromaiden riots began, at least five anti-Semitic attacks have occurred, three were violent attacks on Jews and two were attacks on Synagogues, including a fire bombing. Military units of neo-Nazi bands have vowed to rid the country of its Russian and Jewish "menace'. Kiev Rabbi Azman was reported in Haaretz last weekend saying, "I told my congregation to leave the city center or the city all together and if possible the country too, I don't want to tempt fate, but there are constant warnings concerning intentions to attack Jewish institutions."

Indeed, with Andriy Parubiy being given the Secretary of Security and Defense portfolio, and armed paramilitary fascist bands marching through the streets, there is little reason to think that government forces will protect the rights of national, religious, and political minorities from fascist paramilitary units. In fact, there is every reason to believe security forces may become a direct threat themselves.

Leninist-Trotskyists side with the oppressed nationalities, unions, workers, Jews, and numerous political parties who oppose this coup and who have protested and formed militias against it. In addition, we see it is essential to form a Leninist-Trotskyist party that both adheres to Lenin's program on the rights of nations and pushes forward the program of socialist revolution.

Only a socialist revolution can secure the national sovereignty of Ukraine against U.S. and E. U. imperialism. A fundamental problem in Ukraine is the inability of bourgeois representatives to stand up to the threats of U.S. and E.U. imperialism. Under capitalism, it is the wealthy capitalists who have the power. Ukrainian capitalists can more easily be bullied by these big imperialist powers than the working class because the working class have so much more to lose from EU demands of IMF austerity, dissolving of Ukraine's more protective Soviet era labor laws, increases in heating fuel prices in the midst of a cold winter (a measure demanded by the IMF that will kill poor people), an anti-democratic coup government with strong fascist tendencies, and the elimination of rights for national minorities. In addition, capitalism has brought drastic decreases in wages and 41% unemployment. Under a socialist planned economy everyone in Ukraine had a job. Socialism with workers democracy (i.e. minus repressive Stalinist rule) is the road forward for Ukraine. To achieve this will take reforging a Leninist-Trotskyist Party within the heartland of the Russian Revolution.

Likewise, for many of us in the imperialist centers, the kind of imperialist intervention being carried out by Obama everywhere, including Ukraine, Syria, Venezuela, Libya, Honduras, and Cuba is unacceptable. Yet, this imperialist system of exploitation and violence never changes, no matter who is president and no matter how much we protest. That is because we are up against an entire system, not just a set of bad policies. The United States is imperialist because it is the wealthy who own the capitalist state and the capitalist economy. To gain maximum return on investment, they always fight for the subjugation and maximum exploitation of the world on their behalf. The only way to end U.S. imperialism is by liquidating the capitalist class and organizing a planned socialist economy in the United States, changes that we will only be able to achieve through proletarian revolution. To be prepared for the revolutionary opportunities of the future, the revolutionary party must be built today.

Ukraine: U.S. Backed Rioters Burn Central Kiev, Kill 10 Policemen, a Total of 26 People Killed No To US EU Sanctions Against Ukraine (Also, in the comments section there is an appeal against the coup issued by the head of Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine, Natalia Vitrenko, and 29 Ukrainian political organizations against the ongoing coup in Ukraine.) http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2014/02/19/18751263.php

Ukraine: Leaked Phone Call Confirms U.S. Role in Planning a Future Coup Government

ok, given that you are upfront about being a 1917 style socialist, i understand your thinking, but i would make a couple of observations on this amazing exposition of old school propaganda..

*it is hard to see how a parliament can be described as an "undemocratic body" when it is in fact the definitive democratic body. if some of them choose to not attend or no longer support the government, the remainder does not thereby become "undemocratic" as all the members have still been democratically elected. true, if some/many of some persuasion have been forced to flee, that would be relevant, but i dont see anything in any news reporting which supports that idea, and it comes across as a rather convenient, glib, self serving claim on your part.

*the line of reasing which calls these events 'orchestrated by the western imperialist running dog lackeys blah de blah', is a bit of a stretch, even by the standards of propaganda. it consists entirely of the claim that the West threatened capitalists with economic sanctions if they support a government which uses a lot of force against protestors, which then forces said capitalists to actually support the protesters (not sure how that follows), and that when the elected parliament cracks and acts, that this means the West "orchestrated" the whole affair. dare i point out that the large, ongoing protests and considerable violent clashes came first?

*your attention to the legitimacy of the orange revolution, yuschenko's non election, the recent "coup", as the disinformationalists are falling over themselves to call it, and other political acts is somewhat hard to take seriously. as a socialist, you fundamentally subscribe to a politicial idiom which has violent revolution and lack of democratic legitimacy as a corner stone! at least in this case, elections will result. when communists take over, elections NEVER ensue. well, except within the single party they create.

*oh, please! dont make me laugh by going on about mass murder! stalin organised the deaths of more people than those candy ass nazis did, and communists ahve murdered their own people in large scale wherever they have taken power. russia, china, vietnam, you name it.

Daily, we hear of the horror of the allies of Democrats-Republicans, the fascists known as Svoboda, take over Ukraine. They now have an anti-abortion Deputy Prime Minister of Economic Affairs, Oleksandr Sych, and 5 other fascists, all part of Svoboda, the Anti-Semitic, Anti-Russian fascist friends of Democrat Obama, and the Republicans. At the same time as the Democrat-Republicans promote fascism in Ukraine, they do the same in American concentration camps, causing a hunger strike at the vicious 490 prisoner torture nightmare in Florence, Colorado, built 20 years ago by Democratic President Clinton.

Here is more on the Svoboda friends of Democrat Pres. Obama, a CIA agent from Day One, from a CIA family. PEOPLE ARE KNOWN BY THE COMPANY THEY KEEP. On Oleksandr Sych, from: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/02/28/1281071/-Sych-a-liberation-hero Oleksandr Sych, 49, was appointed deputy prime minister. This Svoboda Party member from Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast had a swift rise since his party made it to parliament. He has made some highly controversial moves in parliament since his election. One of his legal initiatives was an attempt to ban all abortions, even for pregnancies that occurred during rape, an idea that caused a massive outcry among human rights groups. He also famously recommended women to “lead the kind of lifestyle to avoid the risk of rape, including one from drinking alcohol and being in controversial company.” It's not clear what area of the economy he will supervise as deputy prime minister.

Andriy Parubiy was named Secretary of War. From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andriy_Parubiy In 1991 he founded the neo-Nazi[5] Social-National Party of Ukraine together with Oleh Tyahnybok.[2] Parubiy co-led the Orange Revolution in 2004.[2][6] In the 2007 parliamentary elections he was elected into the Ukrainian parliament on an Our Ukraine–People's Self-Defense Bloc ticket.[2] He then became a member of the deputy group that would later become For Ukraine!.[2] Parubiy stayed with Our Ukraine and became a member of its Political Council.[7] In February 2010 Parubiy had asked the European Parliament to reconsider its negative reaction to former Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko's decision to award Stepan Bandera, the leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, the title of Hero of Ukraine.[8] Early February 2012 Parubiy left Our Ukraine because their "views diverged".[9] In 2012 he was re-elected into parliament on the party list of "Fatherland".[10] In 2013–14 Parubiy was a commandant of the Euromaidan.[11] He was coordinator of the volunteer security corps for the mainstream protesters.[12] Here is Der Spiegel’s description of Svoboda: From: http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/ukraine-sliding-towards-civil-war-in-wake-of-tough-new-laws-a-945742.html

In a 2012 debate over the Ukrainian-born American actress Mila Kunis, he said that she wasn't Ukrainian, rather she was a "Jewess." Indeed, anti-Semitism is part of the extremist party's platform; until 2004, they called themselves the Social-National Party of Ukraine in an intentional reference to Adolf Hitler's National Socialist party. Just last summer, a prominent leader of party youth was distributing texts from Nazi propaganda head Joseph Goebbels translated into Ukrainian. Without the nationalists' tight organization, the revolt on Maidan Square would long since have collapsed. * * * * * * IN OTHER WORDS, without US tax dollars funding this phony revolt, it would have ended long ago. This is a classic CIA operation. See: “Ukraine was a playbook CIA coup d'état” – Prof Francis Boyle, 2/28/14 http://voiceofrussia.com/2014_02_28/Ukraine-was-a-playbook-CIA-coup-d-tat-Prof-Francis-Boyle-6845/ reprinted at http://www.globalresearch.ca/ukraine-was-a-playbook-cia-coup-detat/5371296

The anti-Semitism is so bad that even the Zionist Anti-Defamation League is worried. From: “In Ukraine, New Government Must Reassure Jewish Community,” by Abraham Foxman, 2/28/14. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/abraham-h-foxman/in-ukraine-new-government_b_4875833.html “While Svoboda's leaders have refrained recently from making anti-Semitic statements, it is troubling that Oleksandr Sych, Svoboda's chief ideologue, was named vice prime minister. Sych's speeches over the years have focused on promoting Ukrainian nationalism, which he says is exemplified by Stepan Bandera, a leader of the Ukrainian nationalist movement of the 1930s and 1940s. Bandera was at times aligned with the Nazis during World War II and was complicit in mass killings of Jews and Poles by Ukrainian partisans.”

“Over the past several weeks, two Jews in Kiev were violently attacked and Molotov cocktails were thrown at a synagogue in Zaporozhe. Some Jewish leaders have even raised the possibility of a mass exodus from Ukraine.”

THIS SHOULD NOT SURPRISE OBAMA SUPPORTERS as Democrats and Republicans PROUDLY PROCLAIM they have NO DIFFERENCE on foreign policy.

THEY ALSO HAVE NO DIFFERENCE ON DOMESTIC POLICY, especially when it comes to the prison-industrial complex. We heard on Democracy Now, 2/28/14, that 8 or 9 prisoners in the 490 prisoner supermax solitary confinement for 22-24 hours a day hell at Florence, Colorado, built by Democrat Pres Clinton, are on a hunger strike and being force fed. See, listen and watch at: http://www.democracynow.org/2014/2/28/headlines#2289

There is NO rehabilitation in solitary confinement; there is only the hate of the state, whose current leader is Democrat Obama.

You knew when you voted for Democrat Obama that his fellow Democrat Ed Rendell, was the district attorney who framed Mumia Abu-Jamal. Rendell later became National Chairperson of the Democratic Party in 2000.

You also knew that the Democrats in California allow an equally horrifying solitary confinement prison at Pelican Bay Prison, with 1,056 cells. For more on this concentration camp, built in 1989, see http://prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/pelican-bay/305-2/ Democratic Govs Gray Davis and Jerry Brown allowed and continue to promote Pelican Bay Concentration Camp. Democrats have had a supermajority in the State Legislature since 2012, and a majority in the State Senate since 1956, and a majority in the State Assembly since 1996. Yet we still have the death penalty and we still have the prison-industrial complex, including the infamous solitary confinement at Pelican Bay prison. All solitary confinement should be abolished as should the death penalty, as they are both torture. Only rehabilitation for decent paying jobs within 5 years of conviction should be done with our tax dollars if under age 50, and for those over age 50, they should be given a lifelong pension and housed in group housing if they cannot live safely on their own. This society created all of the people in prison; our tax dollars must be used to rehabilitate everyone in every way possible.

When you vote for Democrats and Republicans, you are voting for war and fascism. As we can see from the Democrats’ support of prisons, the death penalty and fascism AROUND THE WORLD, when you vote for Democrats, you vote for FASCISM. The lie that voting for Democrats is fighting fascism is a VICIOUS SLAP IN THE FACE.

You can make amends by CHANGING YOUR PARTY REGISTRATION NOW to the only 2 parties opposed to WAR, FASCISM, AND PRISONS, namely Peace & Freedom Party and the Green Party. They need your registration now to stay on the ballot after 2014; voting for their candidates is not enough; you must register as a member of one of these parties. If you are one of the 3.6 million voters with No Party Preference or one of the 7.6 million Democratic voters or anyone else, now is the time for you to pick one of these excellent, peace, social justice, labor, environmental parties.

WHERE ARE AMERICAN PROTESTS OF THE NAZIFICATION OF UKRAINE? The CIA puppet Democrat Obama is going to start World War 3. Do you need an invitation for a rally at Powell and Market in San Francisco? THIS IS IT. Now is the time to get off the dime. After all, San Francisco has protests for everything else, rain or shine. We better have a protest of World War 3. This protest should be on a Saturday or Sunday at Noon for maximum turnout.

We will be there to protest war and American fascist allies in Ukraine who promote anti-abortion, anti-Semitism, anti-Russian agenda and much more. This writer can remember protests of American fascism in the 1950s when we risked our lives and livelihood doing so. It is easy now. Just make the announcement and we will be there.

Quite a few mercenaries from the United States, Germany, Turkey, Poland and other countries formed part of the Euromaidan activists and militants, said one such activist, arrested by Russian border-guards in Russia’s Bryansk Region, who said his name is Vladislav.

He said in an interview with the Russia-24 TV channel on Sunday that the foreigners in question had come to Kiev’s Independence Square wearing military uniform, some were even armed.

“They came in wearing similar military uniforms. I often saw them scheming with captains of self-defense groups and signing some papers. I can even tell you their approximate numbers. There was about 60 Americans. Germans totalled some 30, 40 or 50 men. There were also Poles, Turks and many others,” the arrested man said.

"Meanwhile, thousands of pro-Moscow protesters staged a number of rallies in eastern Ukraine on Saturday backing the anti-Kiev stance of the Crimean population and calling for Russia to defend them as well."

Unhappy with the outcome of the protests in the capital and alarmed at the rise of Ukrainian nationalist groups in Kiev, many ethnic Russians in Crimea, who make up almost 60 percent of the population here, have been protesting and calling for Russia to come to their aid — with some even going as far as demanding their neighbor immediately absorb the territory.

On Saturday afternoon, they may have gotten their wish. The new pro-Russia prime minister of Crimea asked Russian president Vladimir Putin for help safeguarding the Black Sea peninsula. Putin requested and received authorization from the Russian senate to use military force in Ukraine. Already, professional-looking gunmen in neat, matching uniforms, widely assumed to be Russian troops, took over the capital's government buildings, two Crimean airports and the local television building.

Earlier in the day in Sevastopol, the Crimean port city that houses Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, Illena Prokena was among several thousand pro-Russia protesters who gathered in the city’s main square. Prokena, a 33-year-old blogger, holds a Ukrainian passport, but self-identifies as Russian.

“We are not radicals or separatists as they call us," she said. "We are ethnic Russians who are afraid of the illegitimate government in Kiev,” she said.

Prokena explained she had been sympathetic to the protesters in Kiev when they first took to the streets — she, too, wanted more from the government. When she saw the rise of Pravy Sektor, a right-wing nationalist organization, however, she had concerns. And when the Ukrainian parliament convened after Yanukovych’s ouster and decided to abolish a 2012 language law that allowed regions to adopt Russian as a second official language, she took it as a harbinger of changes to come. She thinks she will be treated like a second-class citizen by the new government in Kiev.

“I want my rights guaranteed. Not in words, but in actions,” she said. “Who are they to have changed the government anyway and tell us how to live? It’s like someone coming in your kitchen and telling you you’re brewing your morning coffee wrong. Would you stand for that?”

Natalia admitted she doesn't take much interest in politics, but was concerned about the developments in Kiev. She had not been to any protest in the main square, but said she wanted Crimea to join Russia. “We already are Russia,” she said. “We’re speaking Russian!”

The Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine that suggests the situation is much worse than what is being reported in the news:

“Across the country… People are being beaten and stoned, while undesirable members of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine are subject to mass intimidation and local officials see their families and children targeted by death threats if they do not support the installation of this new political power. The new Ukrainian authorities are massively burning the offices of political parties they do not like, and have publicly announced the threat of criminal prosecution and prohibition of political parties and public organizations that do not share the ideology and goals of the new regime.” (“USA and EU Are Erecting a Nazi Regime on Ukrainian Territory”, Natalia Vitrenko)

Earlier in the week, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that a Ukrainian synagogue had been firebombed although the “Molotov cocktails struck the synagogue’s exterior stone walls and caused little damage”.

Another article in Haaretz referred to recent developments as “the new dilemma for Jews in Ukraine”. Here’s an excerpt from the article:

“The greatest worry now is not the uptick in anti-Semitic incidents but the major presence of ultra-nationalist movements, especially the prominence of the Svoboda party and Pravy Sektor (right sector) members among the demonstrators. Many of them are calling their political opponents “Zhids” and flying flags with neo-Nazi symbols. There have also been reports, from reliable sources, of these movements distributing freshly translated editions of Mein Kampf and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion in Independence Square.” (“Anti-Semitism, though a real threat, is being used by the Kremlin as a political football”, Haaretz)

Ukrainian Jewry is facing a real and serious threat….To empower the openly neo-Nazi movements in Europe by ignoring the threat they pose is an utterly risky business. People should not have to pay a terrible price – again – for the meekness and indifference of their leaders. As Ukraine today has become the tragic show-case for all of Europe with regards to breeding and allowing race-hatred to become a violent and uncontrollable force, it is imperative to handle the situation there in accordance with existing international law and norms of civilization.” (“Tea With Neo-Nazis: The Violent Nationalism in Ukraine“, Arutz Sheva)

Here’s a little more background on the topic by progressive analyst Stephen Lendmen from a February 25 post titled “New York Times: Supporting US Imperial Lawlessness”:

“Washington openly backs fascist Svoboda party leader Oleh Tyahnybok…In 2004, Tyahnybok was expelled from former President Viktor Yushchenko’s parliamentary faction. He was condemned for urging Ukrainians to fight against a “Muscovite-Jewish mafia.”

In 2005, he denounced “criminal activities” of “organized Jewry.” He outrageously claimed they plan “genocide” against Ukrainians.”…

Tyahnybok extremism didn’t deter Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland. On February 6, she met openly with him and other anti-government leaders.

In early January, 15,000 ultranationalists [FASCISTS] held a torchlight march through Kiev. They did so to honor Nazi-era collaborator/mass murderer Stepan Bandera. Some wore uniforms a Wehrmacht Ukrainian division used in WW II. Others chanted “Ukraine above all” and “Bandera, come and bring order.” (Steve Lendman blog)

White supremacist banners and Confederate flags were draped inside Kiev’s occupied City Hall, and demonstrators have hoisted Nazi SS and white power symbols over a toppled memorial to V.I. Lenin. After Yanukovich fled his palatial estate by helicopter, EuroMaidan protesters destroyed a memorial to Ukrainians who died battling German occupation during World War II. Sieg heil salutes and the Nazi Wolfsangel symbol have become an increasingly common site in Maidan Square, and neo-Nazi forces have established “autonomous zones” in and around Kiev.

An Anarchist group called AntiFascist Union Ukraine attempted to join the Euromaidan demonstrations but found it difficult to avoid threats of violence and imprecations from the gangs of neo-Nazis roving the square. “They called the Anarchists things like Jews, blacks, Communists,” one of its members said. “There weren’t even any Communists, that was just an insult.”

Of the “Big Three” political parties behind the protests is the ultra-nationalist Svoboda, whose leader, Oleh Tyahnybok, has called for the liberation of his country from the “Muscovite-Jewish mafia.” After the 2010 conviction of the Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk for his supporting role in the death of nearly 30,000 people at the Sobibor camp, Tyahnybok rushed to Germany to declare him a hero who was “fighting for truth.” In the Ukrainian parliament, where Svoboda holds an unprecedented 37 seats, Tyahnybok’s deputy Yuriy Mykhalchyshyn is fond of quoting Joseph Goebbels – he has even founded a think tank originally called “the Joseph Goebbels Political Research Center.” According to Per Anders Rudling, a leading academic expert on European neo-fascism, the self-described “socialist nationalist” Mykhalchyshyn is the main link between Svoboda’s official wing and neo-Nazi militias like Right Sector. Right Sector is a shadowy syndicate of self-described “autonomous nationalists” identified by their skinhead style of dress, ascetic lifestyle, and fascination with street violence. Armed with riot shields and clubs, the group’s cadres have manned the front lines of the Euromaidan battles this month, filling the air with their signature chant: “Ukraine above all!” In a recent Right Sector propaganda video [embedded at the bottom of this article], the group promised to fight “against degeneration and totalitarian liberalism, for traditional national morality and family values.” With Svoboda linked to a constellation of international neo-fascist parties through the Alliance of European National Movements, Right Sector is promising to lead its army of aimless, disillusioned young men on “a great European Reconquest.”

Two weeks later, 15,000 Svoboda members held a torchlight ceremony in the city of Lviv in honor of Stepan Bandera, a World War II-era Nazi collaborator who led the pro-fascist Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN-B). Lviv has become the epicenter of neo-fascist activity in Ukraine, with elected Svoboda officials waging a campaign to rename its airport after Bandera and successfully changing the name of Peace Street to the name of the Nachtigall Battalion, an OUN-B wing that participated directly in the Holocaust. “’Peace’ is a holdover from Soviet stereotypes,” a Svoboda deputy explained.

Revered by Ukrainian nationalists as a legendary freedom fighter, Bandera’s real record was ignominious at best. After participating in a campaign to assassinate Ukrainians who supported accommodation with the Polish during the 1930’s, Bandera’s forces set themselves to ethnically cleanse western Ukraine of Poles in 1943 and 1944. In the process, they killed over 90,000 Poles and many Jews, whom Bandera’s top deputy and acting “Prime Minister,” Yaroslav Stetsko, were determined to exterminate. Bandera held fast to fascist ideology in the years after the war, advocating a totalitarian, ethnically pure Europe while his affiliated Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) carried out a doomed armed struggle against the Soviet Union. The bloodbath he inspired ended when KGB agents assassinated him in Munich in 1959.

Lenin killed millions of Ukrainians, and ordered the extermination of the Cossacks (he didn't quite succeed). Stalin starved millions more, then, at the beginning of WWII, used the Ukrainians as kind of a speed bump for the Nazis, who then slaughtered yet more. So, how many would you like Putin to kill? Pick a number, after all it's all in the name of true socialism.

As for Yanukovych, how do you like the Lambos, Ferraris, and tripped out Land Rovers his Mafia friends like to drive around Kiev and Odessa. Funny though, you don't see them in L'viv. I wonder why. Power to the people, baby, those Socialists just love a workers paradise!

I tell all the young, intelligent, hard-working students I know in Ukraine, of Russian, Ukrainian, Tartar, and even Finnish origin, that they are all just a bunch of fascists for fighting to not be oppressed and kicked around by the Mafia.